02/10/16- - OPP seek tips in cold case prison murder

Provincial Police are asking for the public’s help in solving a cold case prison murder dating back to 1999.

Police have gone to social media looking for clues in the case.

On Sunday, Jan. 17, of that year, 27-year-old Donald Mongeon was found dead in his cell at Collins Bay Institution.

On Wednesday, police released through Twitter an appeal for information in the case.
Guards had discovered his body in his cell at 5:30 a.m. during the morning head count. He had been beaten and stabbed 10 times, once in the heart.

According to media reports, Mongeon was found lying in a pool of his own blood. He had been there for at least six hours. The walls of his ransacked cell were spattered with blood.

An autopsy done later showed Mongeon died within seconds of the attack.

There were no security cameras installed on the range at that time. Guards assigned to check Mongeon’s range every hour overnight between Saturday and Sunday didn’t report anything unusual.

Two months after the murder, the OPP Penitentiary Squad reported it had no key suspects and was hoping to do some forensic testing and use DNA to crack the case.

The police had a few theories at the time. One included two unidentified inmates, wielding separate shanks, attacking Mongeon just before lockup at 11 p.m. on Saturday night and fleeing undetected.

But after 17 years, the case has gone cold.

In the bulletin the OPP released Wednesday, police said that despite a police investigation, a coroner’s inquest and a $50,000 reward, no charges have ever been laid in Mongeon’s murder. It also said at least three other inmates took part in the murder.

Mongeon was a first-time federal offender and was killed six months into a five-year term for his part in a 1997 armed robbery at an Ottawa beer store.

Police had difficulty early in the 1999 investigation with the prison code of silence in full effect.

“We’re not getting a whole lot out of the institution right now, so we’re waiting on forensics,” Det. Sgt. Rick Myers said in a January 1999 interview. “Hopefully, the results will lead us in a more fruitful path.

“The forensic stuff is going to be the big key in the case.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.